Wednesday, March 2nd, 2016
Stephan: Several readers wrote me asking for a comparison of the gun laws in the U.S. compared to other developed nations. That seemed an important and sensible question to me so I went looking for actual data. Here's what I found.
I don't know how else to say this we are a dangerous homicidal nation -- look at the chart below - 92 a day, 644 a week, 33,000 a year. We are also the most heavily armed nation in the developed world; and there is a notable correlation between guns being or not being present in a house and the prevalence of gun death and wounds. On the basis of data increasing arms and permitting people to routinely walk around armed will cause an increase in gun death and injuries. Here is what the American Journal of Epidemiology has to say about this:
"Data from a US mortality follow-back survey were analyzed to determine whether having a firearm in the home increases the risk of a violent death in the home and whether risk varies by storage practice, type of gun, or number of guns in the home. Those persons with guns in the home were at greater risk than those without guns in the home of dying from a homicide in the home (adjusted odds ratio = 1.9, 95% confidence interval: 1.1, 3.4). They were also at greater risk of dying from a firearm homicide, but risk varied by age and whether the person was living with others at the time of death. The risk of dying from a suicide in the home was greater for males in homes with guns than for males without guns in the home (adjusted odds ratio = 10.4, 95% confidence interval: 5.8, 18.9). Persons with guns in the home were also more likely to have died from suicide committed with a firearm than from one committed by using a different method (adjusted odds ratio = 31.1, 95% confidence interval: 19.5, 49.6). Results show that regardless of storage practice, type of gun, or number of firearms in the home, having a gun in the home was associated with an increased risk of firearm homicide and firearm suicide in the home. "
One reason for this difference is gun laws. The US has some of the most relaxed gun laws in the world, which explains why so many people in the country can access and own guns. According to a 2007 survey, the US led the world in the number of civilian-owned firearms with 88.8 guns per 100 people, while second-place Yemen fell far behind at 54.8 guns per 100 people.
But are US gun laws really that different from those of other developed nations?
I looked into that question, breaking down gun laws in several developed countries based on media reports, studies on gun violence, national databases, the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence’s analysis of American gun laws, and the Law Library of Congress’s reviews of gun laws around the world.
I found the US really does have the most relaxed gun control measures in comparison with other developed nations — and based on the research, aggregated by the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, it’s a significant reason the US leads its developed peers in gun violence.
Here’s […]
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Dahr Jamail, Staff Reporter - truthout
Stephan: One of the things history will record about the extraordinary election of 2016, other than it may mark the demise of the United States as it currently exists, is the almost complete absence of discussion about the literally earth changing catastrophe all life on the planet faces. Only Bernie Sanders talks about it. And it has two constants: the timeline is collapsing, and the outcome projections are never as bad as it will really be. I think it is the most extraordinary example of denierism in history.
air pollution
Credit: Shutterstock
Recently, a Norwegian Coast Guard icebreaker ship took an interesting trip into the Arctic. The ship found no ice to break, despite the fact that it was the dead of winter and barely 800 miles from the North Pole.
Indeed, record-low levels of Arctic sea ice are becoming normal. The ice is disappearing before our very eyes.
Satellite data now shows we are witnessing a very rapid acceleration in global sea level rise. In the last six years, oceans have risen by five millimeters per year, which is a rate not seen since the ending of the last Ice Age – and it is accelerating.
To see more stories like this, visit “Planet or Profit?”
One of the most alarming indicators of ever-accelerating anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD) this writer has witnessed since beginning these dispatches is the fact that atmospheric carbon dioxide, in early February, reached a level not seen on the planet in the last 15 million years. (emphasis added)
This year is already […]
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Taylor Geall, - Mirror (U.K.)
Stephan: A rather "popular" version of what looks like some serious and game changing brain research.
Future thinking: Keanu Reeves was uploaded brain information directly in The Matrix
Credit: Rex/Shutterstock
Anyone who has ever watched a sci-fi film and wished they could upload information to their brain in seconds could be in luck.
Scientists have developed a way of amplifying learning in a way that almost mimics the methods used in The Matrix.
In the film, Neo – played by Keanu Reeves – has a range of kung-fu skills ‘uploaded’ directly into his brain in just a few seconds.
Experts working at the HRL Information and System Sciences Laboratory in California, have been able to do the same thing, albeit on a lesser scale.
Read more: Is there an afterlife? Scientists offer Matrix-style theory of reality
By studying electric signals in the brain of a trained pilot, and feeding that data into an unskilled person through a electric scalp-cap, novices were able to learn the task 33% better […]
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Rob Hager, Public Interest Litigator - Counterpunch
Stephan: From the day he was nominated to be an Associate Justice by President Reagan I have thought Antonin Scalia a disaster as a Supreme Court Justice. He was a middle finger from the Republicans to the Democrats for their failure to confirm the odious Bork.
Charming apparently in person he was so grossly ignorant of science he could not pass a grade school science test, and such a committed Theocratic Rightist that he almost universally supported the powerful over the weak, and the religious over the secular.
And history has shown he was also deeply corrupt, enchanted to be included in the secret societies of the elite with their secret handshakes and special costumes, and quite willing to let the rich pay for his pleasures. He would have made an excellent medieval cardinal. This article makes the point very well.
Associate Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
The salutary rule of private life that one should not speak poorly of the recently departed does not properly apply to public persons who we know only through their public deeds. When they choose to lead a political life, which is the only capacity in which we have occasion to know them, and they have had an overwhelmingly perverse influence on the course of public affairs, a different rule must apply. If decorum counsels that we do not exactly dance on their graves, at least honest historical judgment should not be suspended or falsified for inappropriate application of rules that properly pertain to private life. Mixing of the private with the exclusively public is a common propaganda tactic.
Biographers may weave the personal attributes, the odd-fellow relationships with Justices Ginsburg and Kagan, the plutocrat junkets of the kind where he died, suspicions about that death, membership in Opus Dei, assessments of when one person’s flamboyance crossed the line to […]
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Michael Arria, Associate Editor - Alternet (U.S.)
Stephan: Here is evidence in support of the points made in the previous article. This is why, even if one puts aside climate change, the collapse of the Middle East, and the U.S. becoming a post-middle class society the 2016 election is so important. We are a nation grounded in the principle of an interpretation of the law. Interpretations change and the next President is going to get three or four chances to determine the law of the next generation.
President Ronald Reagan and then Supreme Court nominee Antonin Scalia Credit: Wikimedia
In a move that highlights a notorious aspect of Antonin Scalia’s legal legacy, Dow Chemical has decided to settle an antitrust case for millions of dollars rather than trying to overturn a jury award.
The company was planning to challenge a $1.06 billion award to purchasers of compounds for urethanes, chemicals that are used to make foam upholstery. A jury found that Dow conspired with four other companies to fix urethane prices. Dow disputed the decision and asked the Supreme Court to take the case on appeal.
But now with the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the corporation has changed its mind. Scalia had a long history of siding with companies over group suits like this one. Scalia wrote the 5-4 ruling in 2011 that stated female workers could not sue Wal-Mart for gender discrimination. In 2013 he was the deciding vote to protect Comcast from a […]
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